The court-appointed trustee of the Aum Shinrikyo religious cult agreed Thursday to raise the amount of damages payable to victims of the 1995 Tokyo subway gas attack by 27 million yen.
According to the plaintiffs' attorneys, individual compensation ranged from 720,000 yen to 143 million yen. The total was 1.12 billion yen, about 27 million yen more than Aum's bankruptcy receiver, Saburo Abe, had originally offered to pay, they said.
However, the damages claims outweigh Aum's assets. Because of this, the actual payments may be 20 percent less than the full amounts, the attorneys said. The plaintiffs said they will urge the central and local governments to abandon their credit claims against the religious group, which account for more than 10 percent of Aum's debts.
Since 1995, 42 victims and relatives of victims have joined the damages suit against the religious group, its founder Chizuo Matsumoto, better known as Shoko Asahara, and the cult members who carried out the nerve gas attack. They originally sought about 890 million yen.
After Aum was declared bankrupt last March, the group increased the amount to about 1.3 billion yen. However, the receiver has estimated Aum's assets at only 1.9 billion yen.